Feltham warnings ignored

Two home secretaries ignored warnings about the "squalid conditions" at Feltham young offenders' institution, where an Asian teenager was murdered by his racist cellmate, an inquiry has been told.

Michael Howard and Jack Straw failed to act after concerns about "degrading and disgusting" conditions.

The inquiry in central London into the death of Zahid Mubarek, 19, at the hands of Robert Stewart in March 2000, heard yesterday from Lucy Bogue, the former chairwoman of the independent monitoring board at Feltham, Middlesex. She said that from 1996 to 2001 there was "grave concern" at issues such as overcrowding.

This was raised in reports intended for the home secretary, but, Ms Bogue said: "The perception among board members was that the Home Office did not consider the problems raised to be sufficiently serious to merit any proactive response."

Such conditions could lead to an "environment ... in which ... violence - and indeed murder - could flourish". Prisoner turnover made it "virtually impossible" to make risk assessments which would have been "decisive in identifying that ... Stewart was an unsuitable cell companion for ... Zahid Mubarek".